Classy, Senator

Last night, Friday, June 11, Barack Obama held in Chicago a fundraiser at which Bernie Mac was the opening act. He told a few jokes, one arguably sexist, swore throughout his routine, then ended with this "joke," as described by Claudia Parsons of Reuters:

The Chicago-born comedian and actor told what he said was a joke about his nephew coming to him and asking the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question.

To demonstrate the difference, he tells the nephew to go ask his mother if she would make love to the mailman for $50,000. The mother says she would make love to the mailman and anybody else for $50,000.

He tells the nephew to go ask his sister if she would make love with her neighbor for $50,000. She says she would make love with the neighbor and anybody else for $50,000.

So he tells the nephew: “Hypothetically speaking, we should have $100,000. But realistically speaking we live with two hos,” Bernie Mac said.

The candidate himself then took the stage, first thanking "my great friend, one of the kings of comedy, Bernie Mac." According to the apparently incomplete report from Reuters, Obama responded during his address by admonishing the comedian "That means, by the way, Bernie, you got to clean up your act. This is a family affair.”

Except that it didn't happen that way. Mark Halperin of Time and Abdon M. Pallasch of the Chicago Sun-Times noted that Senator Obama actually commented "That means, by the way, Bernie, you got to clean up your act. This is a family affair..... I'm just messing with you."

Is an explanation forthcoming?